POINT & COUNTER POINT
Pt. Don't worry about logging the old growth. We are replenishing the forests. There is nothing unusual about clearcutting. Its effect is very much like natural forest fires. Now we replant three trees for every one we cut down and within a few years the ugly clearcuts "green up" and everything is back to normal. Anyway the trees are already over mature and decadent and we are doing the Earth a favour by giving young, healthy trees a chance to grow.
Cpt. Forests are not just a bunch of trees growing together. It is not only the number of trees that count. It is the snags-the dead standing trees where many birds and animals live-, the thick moss and lichens high up in the closed canopy, and the diversity of ages and species that make a self-sustaining temperate rainforest work. Forest fires were exceedingly rare in the coastal rainforest. When they occurred they consumed only a small area, leaving many trees alive and lots of standing snags. Multinational companies typically clearcut huge areas and try to establish plantation forests by planting trees with little genetic variation. They typically allow only 70 years of growth before they clearcut again. In these plantations the essential components of the natural forest never recover and many old growth dependent species are lost. It is ecological ignorance and arrogance to state that clearcut logging and plantations improve the forest.
Pt. Even if the cutting of these ancient forests causes some environmental damage we must cut them because we need the jobs and already have built the mills to process the wood.
Cpt. Our planet will be destroyed if everyone adopts this position. Natural ecosystems are the real basis of ecological sustainability, and they underlie all human economic activity. Where people and governments allow the environment to be degraded ultimately the carrying capacity of the area for jobs also decreases. Think of a place like Haiti. The cure for the over-capacity of our mills is in diversification of the economy, more value-added manufacturing and commercial thinning and selection system logging of the second growth forests rather than clearcutting them again. The ecologically sound, long-term economic solution is not in cutting down the last large remnants of natural forest.
Pt. There is lots of old growth forest left on Vancouver Island...at least 50 percent of the original forest. There is no urgency to protect any more. It doesn't matter if we cut Clayoquot Sound, there are plenty of other areas where we can save samples of the ancient forest for scientific purposes. Besides, more than 12 percent of Vancouver Island is already park, and much of that is unused.
Cpt. Most of the remaining natural forest on Vancouver Island is high elevation, scrubby forest, not lush temperate rainforest. Much of it is fragmented by clearcutting and roads. Species depend on specific ecosystems or specific components of ecosystems, not just any old forest. It is also absolutely necessary to have very large natural areas to protect the complete compliment of species in a complex natural ecosystem over time, especially given variations in climate and the random occurrence of natural disasters which might wipe out a small reserve. Scientists estimate that about 500,000 ha-more than twice as much as the intact old growth left in Clayoquot Sound-is a minimum size of area needed to protect the biodiversity of a region. Currently less than 3% of Vancouver Island's old-growth is protected.
Pt. We used to build roads and log in ways that caused damage to salmon streams and unleashed mass erosion. But now we build roads better, make smaller clearcut openings and make sure the trees grow back.
Cpt. This is simply not true. The recent cutting by Interfor at the top end of Clayoquot Sound in Escalante drainage is just the same as ever. Huge continuous clearcuts on unstable slopes and debris in salmon creeks are as common as ever. MB is cutting the leave strips they had left between small cutblocks because they blew down, creating one huge clearcut. They continue to use grapple yarding techniques which requires twice the amount of road building, causing even more erosion than older methods.
Pt. It is just a very small radical group of eco-nuts that want all of the remaining old growth preserved in Clayoquot Sound. The vast majority of people understand that saving 10 percent of the area is more than adequate and that, with our new silvicultural techniques we can cut the rest without any ecological and visual damage and keep communities like Port Alberni and Ucluelet alive.
Cpt. The most recent polls indicate that over 60% of British Columbians place environmental protection before jobs. It is not the environmentalists who are greedy, but the multinational companies. They have already developed all but eight of the 90 large primary watersheds on Vancouver Island. Too few choices remain. If we save too little the future generations will not have all the components and the blueprint of a naturally working forest necessary to know how to sustainably maintain industrial forests. Allowing logging to continue at the current rate in the current manner isn't even a short term solution. At current cut rates, in less than 15 years the ancient rainforest will be gone, with many years to wait until the second growth forest is big enough to cut. Meanwhile a growing tourism industry, as well as fishing and mariculture, will be negatively affected.
